Mr. Ronald Manning and Mr. Daniel Tomaszewski

Members of Our Board of Education

During one of Excel’s meetings the students had an extraordinary visit. Two of the Board of Education members came to meet and be interviewed by the Excel students. In case you didn’t know the Board is a committee for the school that deals with issues that need to be addressed. The two members who came were Mr. Manning, and Mr. Tomaszewski. During the interview we got this information about the school.

The first thing we learned was that the Middle School did not exist when they were our age. Instead, they used the Junior High as the Middle School back then. Another thing was, yes, they did have overhead projectors as well. In fact it was long before we were born.

Here’s an interesting fact you probably didn’t know. Mr. Verdi was a teacher! He could hit kids if he really needed to. (Hopefully that was rare.) That also goes for some other teachers, for they did paddle some of the kids. Speaking of teachers, some of their favorites were: Mr. Veira, Mr. Anderson, Miss Beyers, Mr. Verdi, and Mr. O’ Neal. No, that is not Shaq!

Since they didn’t have the Middle School and they had the Jr. High, that means they had no Activity Court, as well. With no Activity Court they used the auditorium. They also said that that principal of the time would always make a big entrance whenever he came.

Everyone knows that we can wear shorts and things like that. Well when they went to school they couldn’t wear short sleeves or shorts. Could you imagine what that would be like! They also told us about the fashions of the time. They wore high pants and afros. They told us that they had to wear uniforms to gym. Sorrowfully, we didn’t find out if girls had to do the same, but they probably did.

Do you remember way back into elementary school when we brought home report cards in those cute little orange envelopes? When we got home our parents would read the computer written report? Well according to them, all of the report cards were hand written. Also, the elementary grades extended to 6th grade! It must have gotten really boring, seeing the same faces and going to the same school for around 6 years. Another fact is that there were more male teachers than now. Well, that was what it was like at the Jr. High.

One thing that was similar to our school is that they usually tended to have six or seven hours of school a day. Also, like our school they got vacation days too. They also had clubs, except a different variety. They also had tons of homework. Another thing they told us was that they did the same pranks as we do nowadays. Unlike our school they did not have evacuation drills. Sure they had fire drills, but what they may have had would be air assault drills.

Those are all of the things we learned about what school was like, but here’s a little of their personal lives as kids. Mr. Manning made it all the way to the Mets in major league baseball. Mr. Tomaszewski played basketball in school and in college. They also told us the coolest field trip they had been on was when they went to the Pepsi factory. They told us the schools they had gone to as kids and they went to West Middle Island, Coram, and Port Jefferson. Their favorite subjects were Social Studies and Science. They also proudly stated that they would participate in any programs that they could in the school.

They also discussed the diversity in the schools at that time. As far as teachers went, there were very few minority role models. They both had friends in classes and in sports who were from various ethnic groups. However, when they went home, they mostly associated with their own ethnic groups. That was just the way it was back then.

Wow! That’s a lot of pretty interesting facts about the school that we didn’t know. How about you?

by Sarah Prosser and James Dolan